The Dell UltraSharp 27 Multimedia Monitor UZ2715H ($449.99) joins the smaller Dell UltraSharp UZ2315H as the company's newest UltraSharp monitors that put an emphasis on video conferencing and big audio. The 27-inch UZ2715H is equipped with a built-in webcam and a set of powerful speakers, and it uses an In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel that displays bold, accurate colors.

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You get a nice selection of I/O ports with this monitor, including a pair of USB 3.0 ports, though they could be better positioned. And while the UZ2715H delivers a sharp 1,920-by-1,080 picture, it's no match for the 2,560-by-1,440 image that you get with our reigning Editors' Choice for midrange, big-screen monitors, the Acer K272HUL.

Design and Features
The UZ2715H uses the same cabinet design as the Dell UZ2315H. Both sport black-and-silver finishes and thick, 1-inch bezels. However, unlike the Dell UZ2315H, which has a fully adjustable stand, the UZ2715H uses a rigid base that gives you 28 degrees of tilt, but does not offer swivel, height, or pivot maneuverability.

At the top of the monitor, embedded in the upper bezel, are a 2-megapixel camera and a dual microphone array. Attached to the bottom bezel is a speaker enclosure containing two 5-watt speakers that are considerably louder than most monitor speakers and even provide a smattering of bass. The right side of the lower bezel contains a Power button and six function buttons that are used to change picture settings and serve as hot keys for other monitor functions. The Hook button works with Microsoft's Lync video conferencing software; it blinks when a video call comes in, and pressing it will connect you to the call. Other hot-key functions include volume control and speaker and microphone mute buttons.

All of the UZ2715H's ports are located at the rear of the cabinet. Video ports include two HDMI inputs with Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) support, which allows you to connect to and charge compatible mobile devices, a DisplayPort 1.2 input, and a VGA input. You also get two USB 3.0 downstream ports and one USB 3.0 upstream port. While it's nice to have USB connectivity, the ports are tucked away in a recessed area, making them hard to reach. Side-mounted ports would be much more convenient. At least the headphone jack, which is on the left side of the cabinet, is easy to access.

Picture settings include Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, and Dynamic Contrast, and you can select one of seven picture presets, such as Standard, Multimedia, Movie, Game, Paper, Color Temperature, and Custom Color. Hue and Saturation settings are available only when the monitor is set to Game or Movie mode, and Red, Green, and Blue settings are only available in Custom Color mode. There's also a Response Time setting that lets you speed up pixel response while gaming.

Dell covers the UZ2715H with a three-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight. It comes bundled with DisplayPort, HDMI, and USB upstream cables.

Performance
The UZ2715H produces accurate colors out of the box, as illustrated on the chromaticity chart below. Red, green, and blue colors, represented by the colored dots, are all very close to their ideal CIE coordinates, represented by the boxes. As we saw with the Dell UZ2315H, green is slightly misaligned, but it's not oversaturated and is much closer to its CIE coordinates than what we saw with the BenQ BL2710PT.

Gray-scale performance is generally good. The IPS panel could display almost every shade of gray from the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray-Scale test, but had trouble at the high end of the scale. The two lightest shades were compressed (whitewashed), resulting in a minor loss of highlight detail. Dark gray-scale performance is much better, but the panel doesn't get as dark as the Acer K272HUL does. Color and gray-scale quality remain intact, regardless of the viewing angle, as does luminosity.

The UZ2715H's 8-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response resulted in minor motion blur while playing Burnout Paradise on the Sony PS3 console and again while playing Aliens vs. Predator on the PC. Enabling the Response Time Overdrive setting has no obvious effect on the motion artifacts. On the plus side, the UZ2715H has a speedy input lag (the time it takes for the panel to react to a command from the controller) of 10.2-milliseconds, as measured by the Leo Bodnar Video Signal Lag Tester. This means you won't be a sitting duck on the battlefield.

When it comes to power consumption, the UZ2715H is a miser. It used 17 watts of power during testing in Standard mode and 21 watts in Multimedia mode. Other 27-inch IPS monitors we've recently tested require much more power, including the BenQ BL2710PT (32 watts), the Viewsonic VP2770-LED (40 watts), and the Acer K272HUL (38 watts), all measured in Standard mode.

Conclusion
Solid performance and lots of features make the Dell UltraSharp UZ2715H a good choice for users who require accurate colors, built-in video conferencing capabilities, and powerful audio output. It may not produce the inky blacks that you get with the Acer K272HUL, but it does a good job of displaying shades of gray and turned in one of the fastest input lag measurements that we've seen to date. Still, the Acer K272HUL remains our Editors' Choice for midrange, big-screen monitors. It has a much higher maximum resolution and delivers a significantly more detailed picture and darker blacks.

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About the Author

As a Contributing Editor for PCMag, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, TVs, PCs, networking and smart home gear, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for almost 20 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's Labs (most recently as Director of Operations), John was responsible for the recruitment, training and management of t... See Full Bio

Dell UltraSharp UZ2715H

Dell UltraSharp UZ2715H

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